Don Nickles: “They are going to say we get 50 percent up to $4,500, and then it stops and we go to catastrophic, let's fill that in.…”

“They are going to say we get 50 percent up to $4,500, and then it stops and we go to catastrophic, let's fill that in. The estimates were by some, if you filled that in, it would cost you another $200 billion. My guess is we are not going to do it this year, but we will do it sometime probably in the next 3 or 4 years. That will cost a bunch of money. Then people are going to be complaining: This is really not a good deal. You get 90-percent subsidy over here but 50-percent subsidy over here. We need to make that 60, 70 percent. Frankly, that 60 percent is not high enough. Let's move that category up to 200 percent of poverty. Let's move it up higher. When you make those kinds of incremental changes, and I know many of the advocates want to do that--they stated that. I acknowledge it, and everybody around here should acknowledge that is their desire--I expect they will be successful. There are a lot of people who will say this is not near as good a deal as I have right now, and they are going to lobby Congress: We need a greater share; we need a greater match. Why not go 50/50? Can't we go 60/40, 80/20? Can't we fill in the donut and insure that whole amount? When you make a few of those changes, you have a bill that is not going to cost $400 billion, it is going to cost $800 billion. In that last year, the line will be going straight up. I am concerned about that situation. I am concerned about the expense of it.”